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Hi all
i have a 2foot cube with 4 bristlenose 3 cory's an a school of cardinals and 1 upsidedown catfish species unknown????. My question is, should i take out some baby bristlenoses that just appeared in my tank they've breed before and i've taken out the eggs and not succeeded, this time i had no clue there was even eggs i believe they breed in the driftwood i have in there!! i noticed 2 babies on the glass last night and now there's at least 10 hiding up the top of the tank behind the filter outlet and thermomiter ect. Should i leave them in there or will the adult bn's eat them? Or will they be ok to get food ect in there?

Thankyou from one very excited mum!!!!!!!!!/:'

If you have a nursery prepared for them, I'd remove the fry and start cultivating lots of algae for them to nibble.

The thing that bothers me in that setup is the upside down catfish - the smallest of the Synodontis catfishes reaches 4 inches, and many reach a considerably larger size. Even if you have the small ones such as Synodontis nigriventris or Synodontis davidi, they'll hit 4 inches fully grown, and at that size might start thinking of your Cardinals as lunch - they might not, but be aware of the possibility ...

I'd find out what species of upside down catfish you have, and FAST, because some species can grow to be LARGE - as in over a foot long - and some of the bigger Synodontis are active predators. Worst in this regard are Synodontis schal, Synodontis notatus and the bruiser of the group, Synodontis acanthomias. This latter fish is a 12 inch juggernaut that is capable, when adult, of picking fights over territory with Oscars and winning!

Back to your fry - here's a tip for you that I refer to as the "Otocinclus Pet Rock" method of cultivating algae:

Step 1 : Obtain some containers into which you can put various small objects. One-gallon pickle jars are ideal once they've been washed out.

Step 2 : Add to the jars some old aquarium water from a water change.

Step 3 : Drop into the jars an assortment of rocks, small bits of aquarium bogwood, even garish plastic ornaments will do the job nicely!

Step 4 : Leave the jars where they will receive natural daylight and ideally, sunshine.

Step 5 : When your objects are coated in a nice coating of green fur. pick one or two and put them in the aquarium with your fry. Once the fry have cleaned the object of algae, pick another one from the jars, and replace the cleaned on in the jars to be re-coated - a sort of "crop rotation" method if you like.

This trick works with ALL algae eaters, not just Otocinclus and Bristlenoses.

Oh, and congratulations on your Bristlenose fry!


Panda Catfish fan and keeper/breeder since Christmas 2002

hi ty for ur reply i would love to know what species it is ive been trying to find out but no luck! ive moved the babies to a little tank and all survived the move i just used the water from the main tank. theres about 30 i believe they just kept appearing much to my delight! i wish i could share my pics with u!

thankyou again

If you want to try and identify your Upside Down Catfish, then Planet Catfish has a nice selection of Synodontis photos for you to wade through. However, depending upon species, you could fall into one of two camps:

[1] Your Synodontis is distinctive and easily identified, and you find it from the thumbnails page;

[2] Your Synodontis is one of the many mottled or spotted species that are a pain to identify even for a seasoned aquarist.

If your Upside Down Cat is, for example, a Featherfin Syno, then it'll be distinctive, because juveniles have a lovely high contrast black and white mottled or spotted pattern, which though it fades with age, becomes supplemented by the development of a magnificent dorsal fin with trailing fin rays. If yours is a Featherfin, be prepared for it to hit 8 inches with ease, and if given enough space, potentially 12 ...

Another distinctive fish is Synodontis flavitaeniatus. This fish has orange-yellow stripes on a dark brown background, and is a much sought after fish. Apart from the colour, you'd know if you had this because you would have paid a considerable sum of money for it!

Then, there's the "Rich Man's Synodontis" - Synodontis granulosus, which is not only distinctive in appearance, but hideously expensive upon account of its rarity and the trouble it takes to catch it once it's found. You would know if you had one of these because you would have spent over $200 on a juvenile ... !

Synodontis angelicus is another much sought after prize of a fish that is one of the most beautiful catfishes you will ever see, and is completely unmistakable once you see it. Again, you'd know if you had it because it has white polka dots on a black background and would set you back about $30 or so as a juvenile ...

So, assuming it isn't one of the distinctive ones (and though the Featherfin is the commonest of the readily identifiable ones, it's not the only one in circulation), you'll need Planet Catfish's Synodontis thumbnail page. And lo and behold, here is a link to that very page - aren't I kind!

Basically, click on a picture, and see if that's your fish when the bigger image appears. Below the bigger image (or several bigger images if the fish has been bred in captivity or has multiple colour forms) should be some maintenance data (including eventuaal size of the fish).

Incidentally, if by some chance you have acquired either of the following three species:

Synodontis acanthomias
Synodontis notatus
Synodontis schal

then you will be looking for a new and bigger home for it FAST. I've already mentioned that Synodontis acanthomias is a hardcore ruffian of a fish that not only grows big and eats smaller fishes, but is a VERY capable inhabitant of large "rough house" aquaria featuring bad tempered Cichlids and other similar aquatic hooligans. There aren't many fishes that acanthomias will back down to in a squabble! While slightly less troublesome as adults, Synodontis notatus and Synodontis schal are both large when adult, and WILL eat smaller fishes if they are placed foolishly in temptation's path.

Even among the more reasonably well-behaved species, it's prudent not to tempt them with companions small enough to fit into their mouths. After all, they will take small fishes as food in the wild, and they're unlikely to ditch the habit just because you've put them in an aquarium with small pretty companions that you don't want eaten! A small catfish like Synodontis nigriventris will give you some leeway in this regard, being only 4 inches when adult, but unless you KNOW you have this species, start making plans for rehousing - especially if it starts growing bigger than you thought it would!


Panda Catfish fan and keeper/breeder since Christmas 2002

Hi again i have planet catfish bookmakes as i've always been ahuge fan af my cats, so i've chacked and checked that site and cant find a picture the same as my guy. O've also owned an adult featherfin so i understand their behaviour. I know what ur saying!!!!!! very tetitoral to say the least.
As for the price paid for the fish i have no idea he was a present so i have no idea what was paid for him so unfortunatly that doesnt help me either !
Ok this is what ill do ill post some pics (theyre not great as he seems to know when i want one and hides) so u can look at him and maybe that will help, a friend was over recently and said it is Synodontis nigriventris, but i also have them in another tank and they look different but he said it was because of the enviroment.

I've also added some of the pics of the babies and the tank they came from! It has changed a little the plants have grown ect but u get the idea, they bred in the top of the driftwood without my even realizing it lol!!

ty again Yvette
here's the link:- http://s47.photobucket.com/albums/f156/tollerlove/catys%20rule/


Ty again

Ooh, baby Bristlenoses. Very nice. Congratulations!

Still can't make out what your Synodontis is though ... mind you, I never said identifying them was easy


Panda Catfish fan and keeper/breeder since Christmas 2002

Thankyou they're so cute!!!!

LOL yes never an easy task the pics also are not too good so thats not a great deal of help! i guess ill have to just watch closley!

Yvette

Ok much to his discust and stress i caught him and took his pic now keeping in mind he lost about half his colour this is him hes darker and the now looking cream is usually a more vivid colour i think its actually yellow http://s47.photobucket.com/albums/f156/tollerlove/catys%20rule/?sc=1&multi=3&addtype=local&media=image

Though I would exercise caution here, that does look like a Synodontis nigriventris, so for the time being at least you can breathe a sigh of relief.

If he grows bigger than 4 inches, that's the time to worry. But for now, that looks like a nigriventris, not least because, if you check closely once he's no longer in a bad mood, the underside will be darker than the upperside.

Usually, fishes evolve a colour scheme that gives them a dark back (dorsal region of body), and a light underside. This is so that birds looking down have a harder time distinguishing the fishes from the substrate (which is usually a brown colour unless it's a gravel bed or mud formed from a light coloured soil) and bottom dwelling creatures looking up have a hard time telling them from the light shining in above.

Synodontis nigriventris, because it swims habitually upside down, reverses this trend. Which makes sense if you think about it!

Here's a nigriventris that looks a bit like yours.

Note that your fish has vertical brown bands, with dark, almost black, spots that appear to be applied on top of the bands. Usually, this is a reasonable sigh, combined with the reversed countershading, that you have nigriventris, though ther are other possibilities too. However, the good news is that the species you have to watch for that I cited above are different in appearance from this as adults - the big bad Synodontis acanthomias, for example, has smaller sized polka dots spread uniformly over the body with NO banding, and in any case, the growth rate of that fish also betrays its identity fairly quickly along with its VERY visibly manifest predatory habits.


Panda Catfish fan and keeper/breeder since Christmas 2002

Ok sounds like good news to me unles of course he grows lol although i have had him a while! it would be at least 6 months i would say.

Thankyou heaps if u lived closer id be sending u some babies for ur help but i dont think they'd survive to england lol

If you lived closer, you could help yourself to some of my Panda Cory babies in return

Again, I think they wouldn't like a 3,000 mile journey in a plastic bag ...


Panda Catfish fan and keeper/breeder since Christmas 2002

lol yeah ohhhhhhh baby pandas how adorable!! ive never seen one in real life let alone own one!!!!! oh well!

Here you go ... Panda babies!

Browse that album and have fun!

Panda Catfish fan and keeper/breeder since Christmas 2002

ty for that they are so cute!
how many did u end up with?

Got nine juveniles in total. They're currently enjoying their latest water change (took place about 4 hours ago) and some nice Tetra Pro colour flakes.

The parents are also enjoying their water change and feed - in fact they're beetling about the gravel waggling their tails like Golden Retriever puppies that have just found an open bag of doggie chocs


Panda Catfish fan and keeper/breeder since Christmas 2002

I agree that they are baby upside down synos. And here I was thinking that the only kind of syno you could get in Aus was a featherfin

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